Hon Tariana Turia - Viet Nam apology

The Maori Party
endorses the apologies of the Crown in the House
today.

The New Zealand Military History tells us that
between 1964 and 1972, 3890 New Zealanders served in South
Viet Nam.

For those who served, for their loved
ones, their children and those to come, it remains the
defining point in their lives.

65% percent of those who
served were tangata whenua.

One of them was our
brother.

I stand here today, in pain and in deep sadness,
thinking of those who volunteered to serve our country,
driven by duty and honour. They went where their Government
sent them - but they returned to the hostility and
controversy of a country in crisis, a country
divided.

What does that do to the soul of a soldier, to
serve on combat lines in a battle which some suggest killed
up to two million civilians?

Civilians who were innocent
bystanders to the campaign from Washington to stamp out
communism.

Civilians who were the collateral damage of
what the people called the 'American War'.

The 'American
War' - a genocidal assault on the people of Viet Nam,
leaving behind a legacy of genetically deformed children.

An attack which has gone on for decades in the haunting
impact of trans-generational birth defects.

Human beings
cruelly deformed by the carnage of chemical
destruction.

What does it do to the soul of a soldier to
bear witness to the crime of military chemical spraying, and
then to return home, to be told to never again be seen in
public, wearing the uniform that reminds us of our
shame?

Other generations of war veterans returned home to
a heroes welcome.

The veterans of Viet Nam were hassled
by customs officers, others recalled being smuggled back in
the deep of night, hidden from view, covered up,
invisible.

They were refused full entry to the RSA, and
instructed not to wear their medals of service.

There
were other insidious effects. One veteran, Bruce Isbister,
told the Agent Orange Joint Working Group that:

"Their
earning capacity has been taken from them by their service
to their country, consigned to an income akin to poverty
line and exacerbated by blatant discrimination.

The
pain of those who served in this 'American War' is visible
in the frantic website traffic of survivors. One vet summed
it up,

"Don't treat me like crap then think you can come
back forty years later and say sorry. It doesn't work like
that".

But say sorry we must.

And not just SAY sorry,
but BE sorry, so the world can see from our actions that we
mean what we say.

Last year, Viet Nam Veterans marched on
Parliament in protest against what they described as

[Waitangi 1401]
was lodged by the late Archbishop Whakahuihui Vercoe,
representing about 2000 Maori Viet Nam veterans and their
families.

And we think of those for whom the torch of
injustice still burns furiously, and we are in awe of their
commitment, their courage, their passion for the truth to be
told.

The Waitangi claim described the torturous impact
of the enemies' bullets in Viet Nam, what Vercoe described
as a 'human and environmental catastrophe".

We must say
sorry for sending our soldiers to a war which is still
leaving its trail of destruction in cancer-related deaths,
genetically-damaged births, post-traumatic stress disorder,
and the social impact so often manifest in chronic
alcoholism, violence, the mental anguish that veterans faced
on their return.

I read the words of one veteran who said,

"all I want to do is forget a period in my life that
almost drove me crazy, and they won't let me forget".

As
hurtful as it is, we must not forget the partners who
miscarried, the stillbirths, the health related problems
still seen in their grandchildren.

We must not forget the
disgrace of successive Governments who denied that our
soldiers were exposed to the toxin; the shock veterans felt
over the Reeves inquiry or the McLeod report, reports the
terms of reference of which ensured that justice would not
be found. Such is the nature of political denials.

We must
not forget what the 'American War' did to Viet Nam, to the
people, to their whenua, and their whakapapa.

I was
thinking about the actions of the Prime Ministers of Japan,
who apologised to China for their actions during World War
Two, once in 1995 and then again in 2005.

I think we need
to have the courage to offer our apology to the people of
Viet Nam.

It was a National Government that involved our
soldiers in a war not of their making, and we need to be
thankful today, for the actions of a Labour Government in
bringing them back.

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